NEW YORK — Terrifying surveillance video footage shows a man chasing a woman down a New York City street after following her in and out of the subway and calling her “pretty,” authorities said.
According to the NYPD, the 48-year-old woman was on a northbound J train at the Cypress Hills station during the Tuesday morning rush hour earlier this month when the man stared at her and said, ” “Hey, you’re cute. I like the way you smell.”
“The strange thing about the whole situation is that the train was empty and he chose to sit next to me,” she told NBC New York by phone. “He started looking at me, he could literally feel his breath on my neck, so I got up.”
The victim moved to another subway car and the man followed her, sitting directly in front of her and continuing to look at her, according to police.
“I said to him in English, ‘Why are you following me? What’s your problem?’ “He was confused, he didn’t understand me because he didn’t know English,” said the victim, who did not want to be identified.
The woman got off the train at the Jamaica-Parsons/Archer subway station and the man followed her. The video of her shows him chasing her down the street and into a building. Once inside, police say they got into an altercation. She then ran away.
“He grabbed my bag, pulled me, but I pulled him back in and then he started hitting me,” the woman said.
The office security team came to the rescue and pulled the man away from her, but the man escaped and ran away.
The victim said he was on his way to work at the Social Security Administration building at the time of the incident. The woman told NBC 4 that she has been working at home since the incident and that she is too traumatized to take the J train to work.
“And now what’s going to happen? He’s out there. He knows where I work. He knows which train station I take to work. I’m scared. What’s going to happen to me?” she asked.
Anyone with information can confidentially call authorities at 1-888-57-PISTA.
What the city is doing to protect passengers on the subway
New York City has launched a series of safety initiatives in recent weeks designed to improve public perception of subway safety in light of several high-profile incidents, including homicides.
On Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to test a gun screening program in the transit system. Earlier this week, 800 NYPD officers flooded the city’s stations in an attempt to curb fraudulent fares, which officials say lead to escalating crime.
Meanwhile, newly implemented baggage checks are underway with the help of the National Guard.
2024-03-29 16:50:50
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